Set of Twelve Elizabethan Painted Trenchers, England 16th century

A Rare Set of Twelve Elizabethan Painted Trenchers (‘Roundels’)

English, late 16th century

Measurements
Each trencher: approx. 13.5 cm diameter.
Box: 15.8 cm diameter; 5.8 cm high.

Description
A set of twelve Elizabethan painted trenchers, or ‘roundels’, finely turned from sycamore and contained in their original circular box. Each trencher is decorated with painted and gilded floral and fruit borders surrounding a central moralising verse or ‘poesie’ in blackletter script. The surfaces retain remnants of their original protective lacquer. The original turned sycamore box survives, the underside of the lid bearing the collection label of Owen Evan-Thomas (no. 534).

The verses are at once moralistic and humorous, reflecting contemporary anxieties about marriage, fidelity, prosperity, and fortune. Their lively tone situates them within the Elizabethan culture of wit and conviviality, in which tableware could serve both decorative and performative roles.

Function and Cultural Context
Roundels or fruit trenchers date from the 16th and 17th centuries and were typically produced in sets of eight, twelve, or twenty-four. During the banquet, they were laid face-down on the table and used plain side uppermost. At the conclusion of the meal, with the serving of ‘banquetting stuffe’—comfits, sugar plate, subtleties, and spiced wine (hippocras)—the trenchers were turned over, revealing the inscriptions. Guests would read or sing the verses aloud, often accompanied by a lute, transforming the objects into vehicles of amusement and social exchange.

The practice is described by George Puttenham in The Arte of English Poesie (1589): ‘We call them Poesies and do paint them now-a-days upon the backe sides of our fruite trenchers of wood.’ Inventories from the late 16th and early 17th centuries frequently record such sets, underscoring their popularity in elite domestic culture.

The Poesies
The following verses are inscribed on the trenchers, as catalogued in Owen Evan-Thomas’s Domestic Utensils of Wood:
1. Iff thou bee younge, then marie not yette / Iff thou bee old thou heyste more gette / For younge mens wives will not bee taught / And old mens wives be good for naught.
2. And hee that readers this verse even now / May hap to have a lowering fow / Whose lookes are nothing liked soo badd / As is her tounge to make hym madd.
3. This woman maie have husbands fyve / But never whilft she is a lyve / Yet doth shee hope soo well fore to wedd / Give upp they hope ytt fhall not nedd.
4. Take upp they fortune withe good hap / With riches thou doft fyll thy lap / Yett leefe were better for thy ftore / Why quietnesfe should bee the more.
5. Thou are the hapieft man a lyve / For every thing doth make the thrive / Yet maie thy wife thy maister bee / Therefore take thrift and all for mee.
6. Receave thy hap as fortune fendeth / But God ytt ys that fortune lendeth / Wherefore yh yu a haste gott / Thine wfly they selfe ytt ys thy lott.
7. Beshrewe his heart that married mee / My wife and I can never agree / A knavish queane by this I fweare / The god mans breechs fhee thinke to weare.
8. Iff that a bachelor thou bee / Keepe the fo still bee ruled by mee / Leafte that repentaunce all to late / Reward the with a broken pate.
9. Afke thou thy wife yf fhe can tell / Together thou in marriage hafte spedd well / And lett her fpeake as fhee doth knowe / For depound fhee will faie noo.
10. Thou hafte a fhrowe to thy good man / Perhaps an withrist to what than / Keepe hym as longe as hee can lyve / And att his end his pafeport give.
11. A wife that marrieth hufbandes three / Was never wifhed thereto by mee / Would my wife syould rather die / Than for my death to weep and crye. (See Condition Report for further information.)
12. Thou mayst be poore and what for that / Now yt yu hadft neither cap nor hat / Thy mynd may yet foo quet bee / That yu may swym as muche as three.

Provenance
• Owen Evan-Thomas, before 1932 (collection label no. 534).
• A.H. Isher & Son, Cheltenham, by 1945. Sold for £100 with invoice dated 10 November 1945, describing: ‘Very rare set of Elizabethan Roundels illustrated & described in Owen Evan Thomas’ Domestic Utensils of Treen, Page 64 Plate 24.’
• Dr Jim R.K. Thomson, O.B.E., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. (1890–1960), acquired from Isher in 1945.
• Thence by descent to the previous owners.

Accompanied by copies of original invoice and correspondence from A.H. Isher & Son, c. 1945.

Condition
The roundels are in good condition with wear commensurate with age. There are no splits; two show small losses to the edges. The paint is generally well-preserved across the set, with minor wear and small absences, most retaining an abundance of their original gilding and polychrome decoration, protected by the original lacquered surfaces. The lid of the box has been restored, the central roundel having broken loose at some point; this has been very well and sympathetically repaired.

It should be noted that trencher eleven is a replacement. The original, illustrated in Owen Evan-Thomas’s Domestic Utensils of Wood (1932), has evidently gone missing at some point since the book’s publication. The present replacement is, however, a period example of exactly the same date and from the same workshop, matching the set in every technical and stylistic aspect. Its poesie has not yet been fully deciphered, and the verse transcribed above corresponds to the version recorded by Owen Evan-Thomas. The full list of poesies from his publication has been maintained here for consistency.

Literature
• Owen Evan-Thomas, Domestic Utensils of Wood, XVIth to XIXth Century (London, 1932), pp. 64–65, pls. 24–25 (this set illustrated).
• E.H. Pinto, Treen and Other Wooden Bygones (London, 1979), pp. 79–80, pl. 77.
• George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (1589).

Significance
This set stands out not only for its completeness and excellent preservation, but also for its survival with the original sycamore box, distinguished provenance, and illustration in the foundational reference work by Owen Evan-Thomas. Together with the documentary evidence from A.H. Isher & Son and its descent from Dr Thomson, it constitutes an important witness to Elizabethan domestic and literary culture.